Review of Classes, Objects and References

Class: A blueprint of an object--the model that defines the variables and methods an object of that class will contain when instantiated.
Object: An instance of a class. An encapsulated collection of data variables and methods.
Reference: A variable that holds the address of an object.
Instantiate: The act of creating a new instance of a class or an object from a class.
Constructor: The special method that is called when the new operation is executed.
Default Constructor: A constructor that takes no arguments. Classes with no defined constructors have an assumed default constructor.
Instance variable: An attribute of an object.
Class variable: An attribute shared by all objects of the class.
Method: A named group of declarations and programming statements that can be invoked when needed. A method is part of a class and operates on objects of that class. (Note: Java documentation generally lumps method and function into the single term method.)
Function: A named group of declarations and programming statements that can be invoked when needed. A function is part of a class, but does not need an object on which to operate.
Formal parameter: The variable in a method or function which receives its value from an actual parameter passed to it in the method or function invokation.
Actual parameter: The value (variable, expression, constant, or literal) that is passed to a formal parameter in the method or function invokation.

Examples of using classes - From an intro lab from prior semesters.

Which of these versions of JMUlti is best? Why?
JMUltiB.java

This code shows a good example of using command line arguments, as well as making use of the short-circuiting of Java's && operator.
Argue.java

What's the difference between declaring a primitive type variable and declaring a reference type variable?

Explore parameter passing with respect to objects.

01-14-2014 - 12:07